Apple News to open to all publishers this week, get public reader metrics by mid-2016

Apple is opening the iOS 9 News app to all publishers this week, potentially greatly increasing the amount of content on the service, the company revealed on Tuesday.

Smaller publishers and even individual bloggers can now access the service's publishing tools, Apple informed Bloomberg. Since the News app debuted in September, its feeds have been populated only by higher-profile publications allowed in by Apple, such as The Atlantic or the New York Times.

An anonymous source meanwhile claimed that Apple has fixed a problem with inaccurate reader metrics, which it admitted to January. The app has been properly integrated with ComScore, the person said, and traffic figures should be made public by the middle of the year.

Apple is also planning to make it easier for publishers to see data like shares, unique views, and reading time, the source noted. Separately, the company should launch an ad campaign to draw in more readers.

Recently Apple published a developer document with guidelines for iAds in the News app, which may have been in anticipation of today's announcement. The Bloomberg source mentioned that publishers should keep 100 percent of the revenue from ads they sell in articles, while Apple will take a 30 percent cut from ads it sells.